Dangerous Fauna
by romeoharvey
Summary: Bobby and Alex search for the truth..., no, not really the truth, but they're searching for something.


**Dangerous Fauna**

**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Law and Order: Criminal Intent_

**A/N:**_ I started this a while ago, and then I left it alone for about a million years... Reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy!_

"I'm telling you, I don't see anything!", Alex's frustrated voice rings across the nearly deserted office.

"And I'm telling you, it's here!", Bobby Goren insists, while crawling on his hands and knees between the desks, hoping to catch a glimpse of the suspect.

In silence, the two detectives continue their search for the violent young menace. Goren covers the bottom, and Eames covers the top, which Bobby thinks is somewhat odd, but after and hour or so, his knees hurt so much that asking Eames to switch tasks with him just takes too much of an effort.

So poor Bobby continues crawling in spaces he never thought he would ever see up close, until he comes upon a curious sight, namely his partners' legs. Now, that would not bother him usually, he very rarely gets to see Alex's legs, or the shoes that hold her dainty feet, but what does bother him at the moment is that those dainty feet seem to have been relaxing for a while.

As he slowly lets his eyes travel upwards, he's very proud of himself that his gaze only stalls a couple of times, for only a couple extra seconds. Resting at last on her face, he prepares for her to make some biting comment, only to find her forearm slung over her eyes.

"_Eames is obviously exhausted,"_ Bobby thinks, finding a small amount of sympathy for the partner who left him to do all the work. Then the moment passes and he lets the tiny pitchfork holding man on his shoulder steer his hand to Alex's knee and pinch mildly, just to let her know he's there.

The sharp kick to his abdomen, and some areas beyond, has him gasping for air. Mentally cursing Alex's ancestors to the tenth degree, Bobby slowly rotates around to lay on his back. Meanwhile, Alex flails around in Bobby's chair, shaking sleep from her eyes as she wonders where the pained groaning is coming from. It takes a couple minutes longer than it should for the detective to turn her gaze to the floor beside her and see her fallen comrade.

All desire to rest is pushed aside as Alex, lightening fast, slips to the floor and grabs a hold of her partners hand, asking with concern, "Bobby, what the hell happened to you?!"

His groans now tiny whimpers, Bobby faces Alex with an incredulous expression. In frustration, he almost yells, but the genuine caring in her eyes quickly wears him down to the point where all he can say is, "I walked into a desk."

"Are you hurt?", Alex asks as she reaches for a point below Bobby's belt, not even knowing it until her fingers brush Bobby's hand, the one still covering stinging flesh, and her parters eyes grow wide.

Noticing at last where her hand is resting, Alex flushes bright scarlet. Jumping up, she's already walking away before it occurs to her to let Bobby know where she's headed, "I'm going to get you some ice."

Embarrassed with herself, Alex sends up a silent thanks that, for whatever reason, their colleagues saw fit to clear the room. Reaching the freezer, she yanks it open, intending to also look for a snack, but decides to forget that and just grabs a handful of ice cubes when she sees a couple of officers making tracks in her direction, no doubt more geniuses that want to poke fun at her and Bobby.

Escaping back to her partner, she makes sure to wrap the ice in a thick layer of tissues before handing it to her partner. At his mumbled thanks, she only holds up her pinky, the one with the bright colored band-aid on it and says as cutely as she can, "You helped with my boo-boo, now we're even."

Bobby's light laugh brings a small smile to her lips, but then he grows quite, a contemplative gleam in his eyes that makes Alex's stomach flutter for some odd reason. He always turns her on with that look, and only the fact that their careers could be ruined irreparably stops her from ripping off his form-fitting clothes, climbing on him, for easier access to... everythingand fucking his good sense into oblivion.

Alex is pulled away from her wet dream when the feel of the room shifts. Back in reality, she curses herself for her weakness when she realizes that she's staring at said dream..., who is staring with something akin to mortification in the direction of his feet. Shaking away the last tendrils of her fantasy, Alex also looks to where Bobby's gaze is directed, letting out a shriek when she notes the focus of his attention.

Backing away from her partner and The Thing From The Travel Cage, Alex orders Bobby in a whisper, "Get it!"

As the ball of light tan fur reaches Bobby's knee, the detective swiftly picks up the hamster with a ring of his thumb and pointer finger. Staring at the squirming creature, Bobby wonders how this tiny thing could have caused him and his partner so much pain. Briefly the idea strikes him to take Alex's nephew's new pet into an interrogation room, but Alex appearing in front of him with the plastic cage has him abandoning that train of thought.

Bobby deposits the hamster in and Alex quickly snaps on the lid. Alex stands holding the clear box, examining the animal for evidence of where he's been for the last six hours. Finding nothing, she sighs, "You better be worth all this trouble..."

With a tap on her shoulder, Bobby hands Alex her jacket, which Alex accepts and pulls on after tossing the cage to her partner. As they walk out silently to their cars, Bobby sneaks a glance at Alex every now and then, with (if she didn't know better), a self satisfied smirk on his lips. Positive that he's thinking about how she's going to explain the nippy hamster to her sister, Alex just ignores him.

Opening the door to her car, she settles in and places the cage snuggly between the case files and miscellaneous items on the floor of the passenger seat. She starts the ignition, and just before she can close the door, Bobby pulls on it, leaving about three inches open. Leaning in, he says slyly, "I don't think we're even about the ice..., as I recall, I kissed your boo boo after putting the band-aid on it."

With those words, he shuts the door, leaving an open-mouthed Eames in his wake.

The End


End file.
